The Mission Must Go On

---Indigo---

We trudged along the road, each thinking our own thoughts. Now that I actually had time to think about our next steps, I realized there were a lot of problems with our hastily made plan. It had seemed very simple in the beginning: get to the Northern Mountains and defeat Lord Victor. But if we walk all the way there, we won't make it before winter sets in and the mountain passes get filled with snow.

Another problem was lodging. There won't be enough villages and towns along the way for us to spend the night, so we'll be camping in forests a lot. But our food supply was running low, and Ashley's bag of magically refrigerated food wasn't going to last us forever. I doubted Lucian would be able to catch us a hare every night, so food was going to be a major issue too.

One more thing—Lord Victor believes that all of the Rosewood Seven are dead, so we will have to be extra careful about how we behave and what we say to whom. To be safe, we should have aliases and a plausible reason why we're going towards the Northern Mountains ready. I voiced this thought to Rachel and Lucian.

"Good idea," Lucian agreed. "I'll be Luke, uh, Baker. Yeah. Luke Baker."

"I'll be Sarah Browne," Rachel said after thinking for a few minutes. "What about you, Indigo?"

I mulled over some possible names. "Um, I think Lillian Rolfe sounds nice," I answered. "What do you think?"

"That sounds like a lovely name," Rachel replied with a smile. "Now that we have our names established, let's come up with our fake backstory."

"Oh, I know, we can be cousins who are visiting our sick grandmother in a village near the Northern Mountains," Lucian responded excitedly. "We can just name a random village around the mountains if anyone asks."

"We look nothing alike," Rachel pointed out. "It's kind of a stretch."

I looked at ourselves: Lucian with blonde hair and hazel colored eyes, Rachel with auburn hair and green eyes, and me with brown hair and honey colored eyes. Yeah, we were totally related.

"But it'll earn us some sympathy, and no one will ask that many questions," Lucian explained. "What do you say, Indigo—I mean, Lillian?"

"I guess that works," I replied. "Anything that will keep Lord Victor from suspecting that we're alive."

* * * * *

The mountain range on our left gradually gave way to open land that was scattered with trees and bushes. The forest on our right stretched on, seemingly endless. After a few more days of camping in the forest and trudging along the dirt road, we finally came across a village situated at the intersection of two roads around mid-afternoon. Although forests were near the village, I noticed that a large area of land had been cleared, with tree stumps still scattered in the area. A small hand painted sign at the edge of the fencing told us that the village was named Sheep Lane—which explained why there were several flocks of sheep milling in the fields nearby.

"It looks busy enough," Lucian noted, watching traders bustle in and out of the

village. "Perhaps we can find lodging for the night here."

We wandered in, trying to find something that resembled an inn. The main road was lined with shops and stalls, and many villagers were busy trying to sell their wares. Some of the shoppers seemed to be villagers from Sheep Lane, but many were from other villages. Everything was sold here, from pottery to clothing to the freshest produce. A small group of children ran past us, headed for a nearby stall that was selling taffy candy.

A kind-faced woman who looked to be in her seventies smiled at the eager children and handed them each three rectangular bars of taffy candy wrapped in brown paper in exchange for a few bronze coins each. Having gotten their candy, the children scattered and the old woman looked up to see us approaching. "Hello there. Would you like to buy a few pieces of taffy candy? They're only three numus a piece."

We looked at each other. Three numus was really cheap, considering that forty numus was equal to one argent, and thirty argents was equivalent to one gold coin. Why not support this nice old lady's business?

"Sure. We'll have six pieces of candy, please." Lucian stated. The old woman smiled warmly and gave him six bars of taffy candy, each about the size of my palm. Rachel rifled in her bag for money, pulling out several coins.

"Indi—I mean Lillian, I only have ten numus," she whispered.

"Give her an argent then," I whispered back. "You have all of our money, and I don't have any spare coins on me."

"We don't have any argents; we only have gold coins," Rachel replied. "If I give her a gold coin, isn't that kind of suspicious? Since normal people usually don't carry around gold coins?"

"Well, we don't have any other options." I motioned for Rachel to hand me a gold coin, and then approached the old woman myself. "We don't have enough numus; do you have enough change for a gold coin?"

The old woman looked from the gold coin in my hand to me, surprise showing in her face. "I think so, dear," she answered, opening her small bag of coins. "Hold on a minute."

She counted the coins, and then handed me a handful of argents and numus. "Forgive me for asking, but you three aren't from around here, are you?"

"No, we're not." I answered, passing the coins to Rachel to keep.

"Where are you children from then? From your appearance, I don't think you're from any of the surrounding villages either." The old woman glanced over us once again, taking in the swords hanging from our sides. We sure stood out from the crowd, because once again, most people don't carry swords around.

"Um, we're from Northbell," Rachel answered. "We're going to visit our sick grandmother."

"Northbell? My, you three are far from home. Does your grandmother live here?"

"No, she lives in, um, Greystone Village," Rachel replied. I assumed Greystone Village was the name of a place near the Northern Mountains. The old lady gasped.

"Greystone Village? That's so far away! You must stay in Sheep Lane for the night; it's much too dangerous to travel at night."

"Speaking of which, do you know where an inn is? We were looking for lodging, but couldn't find any," Rachel said. The old lady brightened.

"Oh, my son owns a small inn! I can take you there if you like."

"That'll be great!" Rachel beamed. "Thank you, Mrs.—?"

"Just call me Lucretia, darlings," the old woman answered as she stepped out

from behind the candy stall. "Now, just follow me and come this way."